Widely considered the chain restaurant capital of the country, I was impressed to find a number of unique restaurants in Indianapolis after a quick browse of my favorite sites. This in no way disputes the claim to chain restaurants, as you can’t throw a stone in Indianapolis without hitting one, but there is certainly something more to the place. The first spot we hit up was creatively named The Tamale Place and it was in an area that seemed to have its fair share of Mexican food.

Corn oozing with chicken.

They had a pretty good variety of tamales and always kept them fresh with a count of how many they had left of each on a video screen. Itching for some spice, I ordered two of their spicy tamales. The first was a Spicy Chipotle Chicken and the other a Spicy Fried Chili Beef. I upgraded one of these to a combo that came with chips, salsa, a choice of beans, rice or beans/rice, and a Mexican bottled drink (no horchata here). The food was ready in a jiffy and looked stellar both wrapped in the corn husk and unwrapped.

I like my chili fried.

Both were nicely spiced and had a good kick, but the Spicy Fried Chili Beef was definitely stronger. Fortunately, the chips and salsa were there to buffer my taste buds, and my Mandarin Jarritos was also there to help. Both the tamales turned out to be a great choice, and filled me up real nice-like, but my mom also ordered another tamale to finish off the meal.

Chocolatamale!

This was the Chocolate tamale. Like hot chocolate in tamale form, this was a great way to close out. I usually don’t go for desserts and given the choice I would probably take another spicy tamale on a given day, but this was a great choice for anyone not as into the savory department as me.

It seemed that on this day the internet led me in the right direction. The Tamale Place was a welcome stop in a sea of chain restaurants and one I would recommend any visitor to Indianapolis to stop by…even if you come from a more Mexican part of the world.